Broward County Sheriff’s Office Handling of Parkland School Shooting Worse Than Originally Thought

Broward County Sheriff’s Office Handling of Parkland School Shooting Worse Than Originally Thought

Paramedics and officers wanted to enter Parkland school where kids were dying. BSO repeatedly said NO.

According to this, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office handled the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in an even worse way than originally thought.

Michael McNally, deputy chief for Coral Springs fire-rescue, asked six times for permission to send in specialized teams of police officers and paramedics, according to an incident report he filed after the Feb. 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that left 17 people dead.

But every time McNally asked to deploy the two Rescue Task Force teams — each made up of three paramedics and three to four law enforcement officers — the Broward Sheriff’s Office captain in charge of the scene, Jan Jordan, said no.

“The [BSO] incident commander advised me, ‘She would have to check,’ ” McNally wrote in the report released Thursday by Coral Springs. “After several minutes, I requested once again the need to deploy RTF elements into the scene to … initiate treatment as soon as possible. Once again, the incident commander expressed that she ‘would have to check before approving this request.’ “

Even after the shooter had been arrested, the answer remained the same.

It’s not known whether paramedics, who arrived at Stoneman Douglas within minutes of the shooting, could have saved lives. Thirty-four people had been shot inside the school’s freshman building. Gunshot wound victims can bleed out quickly, meaning fast action is necessary. The special RTF teams allow paramedics to treat victims under the protection of police officers in situations where a shooter has been pinned down or fled but has not necessarily been captured.

SWAT medics went in instead, although it’s not clear exactly how many or when.

I’m not saying the [RTFs] would have made a difference and I’m not saying they wouldn’t have made a difference, but it would have been more medics and more hands helping out,” Coral Springs Fire Chief Frank Babinec said in an interview Thursday.

Veda Coleman-Wright, a spokeswoman for BSO, said in an email Thursday evening that medics are only sent in “after it has been confirmed the threat is mitigated.”

At least three additional fire-rescue incident reports released Thursday by Coral Springs confirmed that BSO had denied requests to send in the rescue teams. Coral Springs provides fire service in the city of Parkland. BSO provides law enforcement.

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